Week In Review: Amazon, Tradus, Flat.to And More

Amazon adds Apparels & Shoes store, now customers can pick up Amazon shipments from kirana stores

Online retailer, Amazon.in has marked its entry into Apparels with the launch of ethnic and Indo-western wear for women. A few days back it had also introduced Shoes Store on the platform.  The store will be offering over 12,000 contemporary & traditional styles from over 90 apparel brands offered by private labels and national & regional retailers to its customers. It has also introduced a Sunglasses store with more than 2800 styles catering to men, women and kids. Whereas the shoe store has a selection of over 5000 styles of shoes for men, women and kids, from over 50 international and Indian brands.

The online retailer has now also started working with kirana stores where it will allow customers to pick up for products ordered from its website from these stores. The service is currently available in Bangalore, reports TOI.

Amazon Launches Self Service Registration (SSR) and Amazon Easy Ship for sellers in India

Amazon.in has not only made its entry into shoe and apparel section, but also announced launch of two new capabilities, Self Service Registration (SSR) and Amazon Easy Ship for sellers in India.

SSR will provide sellers an accelerated and friction-free path to Selling on Amazon and with Amazon Easy Ship, sellers can leverage Amazon’s investments in logistics to have their orders on Amazon.in shipped straight from their own warehouses. This will help them to improve their delivery experience and to scale and grow their online business cost effectively and profitably.

Amazon Self Service Registration (SSR), enables sellers- irrespective of their size, location and size of catalogue, to self-register on the Amazon marketplace and start selling within a day without any third party intervention, making the process quick, easy, and transparent. Whereas, Amazon Easy Ship, is an assisted shipping service that delivers a worry free shipping experience for sellers shipping products from their warehouse to buying customers. With Amazon Easy Ship, sellers can manage both prepaid and COD orders.

“We are invested in making sellers successful; continually looking for ways to do the heavy lifting for them; and enabling them to sell more and make more money. With Self Service Registration and Amazon Easy Ship in addition to Selling on Amazon and Fulfillment by Amazon, sellers can now not only tap into the online channel easily and quickly and offer customers across India a delightful experience, but also see higher sales and profits and thus grow their business online,” says Amit Deshpande, General Manager and Director Seller Service, Amazon India. “The initial response to Amazon Easy Ship, has been extremely encouraging. Within two weeks of adopting the service, our sellers have seen an average of 30% growth in sales,” he adds.

Accommodation site Flat.to acquired by reality portal Commonfoor

Flat.to, a student  accommodation site was acquired by reality portal Commonfloor for an undisclosed amount. Flat.to will continue to function independently and the deal included both cash and stock components.

Flat.to was founded by former software engineer, 23 year old Gaurav Munjal who was previously a software developer at Directi. “I decided to focus on this segment as I had faced problems finding accommodation when I had moved from Jaipur to Mumbai as a student,” he said.

Post-acquisition, Munjal will continue as the CEO of Flat.to and will also own some stock in Commonfloor. The company’s other founder,  Aakrit Vaish, who has also invested in the company has exited following the acquisition.

Last week saw online nightlife and restaurant guide TimesCity acquired table reservations site DineOut. The same week also saw online marketplace Snapdeal acquiring product discovery startup Doozton.

Gaurav kachru appointed as new CEO of Bagittoday, will continue to work for 5ideas as well

India Today’s ecommerce venture, Bagittoday has recently appointed Gaurav Kachru as its new CEO. Gaurav Kachru  is the  former CEO & Co-founder of Dealsandyou.com and has also launched 5ideas.in with his wife Pearl Uppal, former CEO & Co-Founder of  Fashionandyou.com.

We had heard rumors of Gaurav joining Bagittoday last month, however he had denied at that time.

Tradus introduces grocery delivery service from local sellers

Tradus.com has recently introduced grocery delivery service via local sellers. With the new service, now consumers can order groceries such as dal, rice, sugar, tea to dry fruits from local sellers directly via Tradus mobile apps (android, iOS or windows phone). The service is available only in Delhi as of now and customers will get the delivery within few hours.

A few other companies dealing in grocery spaceinclude EkStop.com, BigBasket.com, MyGrahak.com, ZopNow.com, Greencart.in, etc.